This is an excellent recounting of a particular case regarding special education services for children in the village of Kiryas Joel in New York State after the village won the legal right to be a separate school district. This right was challenged successfully as violating the US Constitution, and the book brilliantly explains the legal issues, the different legal, political and ideological principles involved, and the motivation of each of the players including the NYS Governor and assorted Supreme Court justices. It is sympathetic to all sides, clear in its writing and… Read More

Jewish Book Council   The Curious Case of Kiryas Joel Louis Grumet and John M. Caher 1 Chicago Review Press  2016 304 Pages    $27.99 ISBN: 978-1613735008   Review by Edward Shapiro The Curious Case of Kiryas Joel examines a case involving the ultra-Orthodox community of Kiryas Joel, a village adjacent to the town of Monroe in Orange County in New York. It is a “curious” case because, as its authors note, it involved individuals who had chosen to isolate themselves from the temptations of modern American life while simultaneously insisting on government… Read More

The Hasidic School District That Was Created in Secret Bookshelf By SAM ROBERTS MAY 27, 2016 Photo The Satmar Hasidic enclave in the village of Kiryas Joel in Orange County sought to establish its own public school system to serve children with special needs. CreditRichard Perry/The New York Times Even most New Yorkers have forgotten that Congress passed the Bill of Rights in New York. According to “The Curious Case of Kiryas Joel: The Rise of a Village Theocracy and the Battle to Defend the Separation of Church and State” (Chicago Review… Read More

April 24, 2016 Education Week The School Law BlogEducation Week’s blogs > The School Law BlogSee our Law & Courts coverage The School Law Blog Mark Walsh Mark Walsh is a contributing writer to Education Week. He has covered legal issues in education for more than two decades. He writes about school-related cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and in lower courts.   Book Examines 1994 Supreme Court Case on School District for Hasidic Sect By Mark Walsh on April 12, 2016 5:42 PM Twenty-two years ago this month, I flew to… Read More

Julie S, Reviewer I was completely fascinated by this. If you are interested in constitutional law, religious minority practice and life, and how government works, you need to read this. Review copy provided by publisher. Recommends This Book

The Curious Case of Kiryas Joel: The Rise of a Village Theocracy and the Battle to Defend the Separation of Church and State. Grumet, Louis (Author) and Caher, John (Author) Apr 2016. 304 p. Chicago Review, hardcover, $27.99. (9781613735008). 344.73. Kiryas Joel is a community of the Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism. Located in upstate New York, it’s members observe strict dietary laws, wear distinct clothing, and otherwise do not interact much with non-Satmar. Although most of their children are educated in the community’s private schools, the Satmar have a high number… Read More

    The Curious Case of Kiryas Joel: The Rise of a Village Theocracy and the Battle to Defend the Separation of Church and State Louis Grumet, Author, John M. Caher, Author, Judith S Kaye, Foreword by Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, a 1994 Supreme Court case concerning a New York public school district created to accommodate the religious preferences of a faction of Hasidic Jews, gets a behind-the-scenes look in this blend of history and memoir. Grumet’s personal involvement with the case, as its main… Read More

THE CURIOUS CASE OF KIRYAS JOEL   KIRKUS REVIEW Post-mortem of an unusual Supreme Court case regarding the separation of church and state. In the 1970s, the reclusive, ultra-Orthodox Satmar Jewish community of Brooklyn began to expand into a new enclave in upstate New York. Named Kiryas Joel, the new community would bring unexpected challenges to existing communities as well as to the existing school district. With the assistance of former New York Law Journal senior reporter Caher, Grumet, former executive director of the New York State School Boards Association, chronicles a… Read More